There used to be a pub on Ocracoke Island called..Howard's... there still is but it's at least two management's later, now. Howard was somehow involved in organized crime from the NE, and it caught up to him.
He had a beer list of 375 beers iirc...
We jumped the ferry one Friday afternoon, two buddies and I, and went over there with intent on coming back later that night... we discovered as we left the ferry station it was the last ferry until Saturday afternoon- whoops!
We decided to attempt to drink every beer on the list at said pub... its called a pub but at the time it was an open pavilion bar. We cut the menu in thirds and assigned one to each, and had at it.
That was an interesting weekend. Some dude was playing solo acoustic at the pub, and though I've played out and in front of people I didn't know before and should have had some sympathy for the guy, well, I didn't. He was terrible. He took a break at some point and the three of us took the stage over. It's not that we were good, it's that we were better.... and it was one of those "in the moment things". Howard actually asked us to come back and play again.
We also stopped having to pay for drinks.
This was the off-season and it's a pretty tight knit community over there who are suspect of outsiders, but they treated us like we were something special. We literally played until well into morning. Howard fired up the grill at daybreak and cooked breakfast for everyone still there- and we kept drinking.... and drinking...
We missed the Saturday ferry and after crashing in the only real parking lot on the island (silver lake), we did it all over again Saturday night into Sunday.
I could tell yall stories for days- conquerors and concubines and wanderers from darker times- betrayal and conspiracy and sacrilegious herecy- but that weekend at Howard's pub on Ocracoke may have been the best weekend of my life.
And... we drank, much to the amazement of the locals, every beer on that menu.
